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Meet ​Ambi M.G. Parameswaran

​Ambi is the Founder of Brand-Building.com, a brand advisory. The former CEO of FCB Ulka Advertising, one of India’s top ad agencies. He has worked with companies like Rediffsion DY&R, Boots Company and UDI Yellow Pages. During his 35+ year marketing / advertising career he has worked on brands / clients including Tata, LIC, Tropicana, Digene, Brufen, Santoor, Sundrop, TCS, ICICI Bank, Wipro, Tata Indica, Zee TV, Abbott, J&J among others.

Ambi has authored articles for premier business publications and has been a speaker at international forums including the Kellogg India Conference at Northwestern University; he has also been a guest faculty at several business schools including SPJIMR, ISB and IIMC.

He has written eight books on branding, advertising and consumer behavior. His latest book, “Nawabs Nudes Noodles – India Through 50 Years of Advertising”, was launched in June 2016 to critical acclaim.

Ambi has served as the President of Advertising Club Bombay and Advertising Agencies Association of India, in the past. He successfully completed his PhD from Mumbai University in 2012, and the Advanced Management Program from Harvard Business School in 2014. He joined the Board of Governors of IIMC in 2007 and received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from IIT Madras in 2009 Ambi is currently an Adjunct Professor of Marketing at SPJIMR; he is also an Independent Director on several Boards and a Brand Advisor/Coach to a few large and small companies.

Speaking Topics

• Brand Strategy
• Sponge: Leadership Lessons I Learnt From My Clients, Ambi has worked with some of the most respected brands and names in the Indian corporate world, and each of those assignments were for him masterclasses in leadership development. In this book, Ambi recounts conversations with some of the most iconic business leaders, such as Ratan Tata, Azim Premji, S. Ramadorai, Karsanbhai Patel, M. Damodaran, Dr V. Kurien and many others. He soaked up these conversations, in his own words, 'like a sponge’. In this Talk, Ambi attempts to walk us through some of those dialogues – both the illuminating and the difficult aspects of them – to help us understand how they were learning sessions. For anyone looking at turbocharging their business and career, the ‘Sponge Process’ that emphasizes listening is a radical new way of engaging with clients and customers.
  
• Understanding the Indian market
• Connecting with the changing Indian consumers
• Strategic branding/Living the brand
• Understanding media in India
• Socio-cultural trend spotting
• How religion impacts our marketing world

Speaking Topics By Ambi Parmeswaran

All The World's A Stage: A Personal Branding Story
A CONCISE, CRUCIAL GUIDE TO THE WHAT, WHY AND HOW OF PERSONAL BRAND BUILDING
A brand is an identity—and it is certainly not restricted to products. Allow Ambi, Shankar, Rita, Kunal and Joe, who are back in college for their silver reunion, to bring alive for you the notion of people as brands. As they walk through the campus, rediscovering old haunts, the friends enter into an animated discussion. Their conversation offers keen insights into how each individual has a unique brand, which must be as thoughtfully cultivated as product brands are.
Personal brands can be both a factor and a marker of success. As businesses compete, the personal branding of a company’s leadership can influence how well it performs. Similarly, how a new hire brands herself could alter the opportunities that open up for her, and so also her career path. In short, individuals—and how others perceive them—matter.
Defining a personal brand, crafting a presence, developing a unique voice, building a network, using social media creatively and more: in All the World’s a Stage, Ambi Parameswaran offers a concrete roadmap towards brand building that will give you an unmatched strategic advantage. This book is a concise, crucial guide to our frenetic times.

Sponge: Leadership Lessons I Learnt From My Clients
In this New Webinar based on his book of the same name- Veteran adman and author AMBI PARAMESWARAN has relied on one process of learning above all others: powerful conversations with clients and customers. A challenging customer, in his view, goes from being someone who poses an obstacle to quality work to someone with eye-opening ideas and concepts. Approached as an exercise in listening and learning, these conversations can become long-term lessons.

Ambi has worked with some of the most respected brands and names in the Indian corporate world, and each of those assignments were for him masterclasses in leadership development. In this book, Ambi recounts conversations with some of the most iconic business leaders, such as Ratan Tata, Azim Premji, S. Ramadorai, Karsanbhai Patel, M. Damodaran, Dr V. Kurien and many others. He soaked up these conversations, in his own words, 'like a sponge’.

This Webinar is an attempt to walk us through some of those dialogues – both the illuminating and the difficult aspects of them – to help us understand how they were learning sessions.

This Webinar, is a practical demonstration of leadership qualities. It is a collection of instances when Ambi—an advertising veteran—absorbed or ‘sponged’ knowledge from clients he interacted with. In a sense, the webinar borrows as much from established management theories as it does from human behaviour and how to navigate around it.

For anyone looking at turbocharging their business and career, the ‘Sponge Process’ that emphasises listening is a radical new way of engaging with clients and customers.

Building Your Personal Brand
‘A personal brand is an idea that comes to mind when people talk about you, when you are not in the room’
 
Key TakeAways

• Why should a CIO worry about his / her personal brand?
• How can a CIO go about building his / her personal brand?
• How will a strong personal brand help your company and your personal growth?

 
Ambi has worked on iconic brands spanning a broad spectrum of products and services including Wipro, TCS, Tata Motors, Zee, Compaq, Thermax, Santoor, Sundrop, ICICI Bank and many more. He is the author of nine books on a range of topics including branding, advertising, consumer behavior and leadership.
 
Ambi is a Chemical Engineer from IIT Madras , an Honor Roll MBA from IIM Calcutta, a PhD from Mumbai University; he has done an AMP from Harvard Business School and a CEO Coaching Certification from CFI.  He was CEO of one of India’s largest advertising agencies and brings 40 years of experience in brand building.
 
In the MasterClass  Ambi will take the participants through the origins of branding and how personal branding became important. He will then take the participants through a simple five step process for building their personal brand. The importance of defining your personal brand. The concept of executive presence and executive voice, the building networks  and the use of digital and social media to build personal brand.

Spring: Bouncing Back From Rejection 
Spring: a twisted piece of metal that can be pushed, pressed or pulled but which always returns to its original shape or position afterwards.

Rejection is inevitable in every stage of our lives. But what if this inevitability were a tool? What if it could be used as leverage to spring forward at every setback? What if there was a way to systematically process rejection and become a super-spring?

Ambi Parameswaran—best-selling author, brand / leadership coach and former CEO of FCB-Ulka Advertising —was rejected at his dream job interviews, he was denied promotions and clients turned down his business pitches. He now knows that he eventually succeeded because of these rejections and the way he handled them.
Spring is packed with tales of rejection and redemption. Walt Disney, The Beatles, Thomas Alva Edison, Michael Jordan, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the founders of Infosys, author Amish and others have used rejections as a pivot to swing their careers and businesses around.

Ambi brings his decades of experience to bear on perhaps the vital life and career lesson you could learn from rejection. In Spring, he puts a gentle arm around your shoulders and helps you bounce back stronger than ever from every rejection.

NEW BOOK BY - AMBI PARAMESWARAN - All The World's A Stage: A Personal Branding Story